Malta and international press digest

The following are the top stories in the local and overseas press:

The Times says the revision of the departure tax has been delayed by the general elections but will be given early consideration by the new Parliament.

l-orizzont said that there is confusion just three days before the introduction of separated waste collection.

The Malta Independent says that professional and technical staff at Mepa will not be allowed to contest political elections according to the draft code of ethics presented earlier this week. It also reports that the law excludes Norman Lowell from contesting the European Parliament elections as he has been given a two year suspended jail term. That is, however, subject to appeal.

In-Nazzjon says EU figures have confirmed that Maltese economic growth in the first three months was above the EU average.

The Press in Britain...

The Sun also devotes its front page to 'bewildered' Madeleine's question. The paper says the details emerged after a Spanish TV station obtained the full police statements made by her parents.

The Daily Star says Kate McCann still believes Madeleine is alive somewhere but living in 'absolute fear'.

The Daily Mirror quotes Madeleine's mother telling of the agony she and Gerry have suffered during the 11 months since their daughter vanished.

The Daily Mail also repeats Madeleine's question to her mother. The paper also reveals allegations that a family were spied on for three weeks by a council 'to check whether they lived in the catchment area of their child's school'.

The Daily Telegraph also devotes a large portion of its front page to Kate McCann, pictured in Brussels at the launch of a Europe-wide missing child alert system. In its lead story, however, the broadsheet fears mortgages will become even more expensive despite the Bank of England interest rate cut yesterday.

The Times reports millions of struggling families will be hit by higher mortgage payments after banks raised their charges, despite the Bank of England's quarter-point cut in the base rate to 5 per cent.

The Financial Times reports that ministers have vowed to drive through 'unprecedented statutory powers' to shut down investigations on national security grounds, just hours after the High Court said the government had broken the law by scrapping a probe into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.

The same story fronts The Guardian, which says the British Government is under pressure to allow the reopening of the criminal investigation into the case in the light of the judgement in the High Court.

The Herald reports a High Court judge has accused Downing Street of "a failure of government" and the Saudi royal family of perverting the course of justice.

And elswhere...

The New York Times says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has informed China that he will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August "due to a scheduling conflict". World leaders are facing pressure from human rights activists to boycott the opening ceremony of the summer Games. China has come under harsh criticism from Western governments for its crackdown in Tibet.

Chumhuriyet reports that European Commission President Jose' Manuel Barroso has used an address to the Turkish parliament to praise the reforms that Ankara has made in recent years to conform with criteria for joining the European Union. But he also said that there were still many areas in which improvement was needed. This, he said, included freedom of expression, cultural rights and women's and children's rights. Barroso said that progress in these areas were key to its EU membership bid.

The Times of Zambia says both Robert Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai will attend tomorrow's summit of southern African leaders in Lusaka. President Mwanawasa called the summit of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community in an effort to seeks ways of ending Zimbabwe's political standoff. Meanwhile, Johannesburg's The City quotes a senior Movement for Democratic Change official saying Tsvangirai, will not participate in a presidential run-off election.

Washington Post announces that President Bush has ordered a halt in US troop withdrawals from Iraq after July, endorsing a recommendation from his top commander in the country. In a nationally televised speech from the White House, Bush said that General David Petraeus would get all the time he needed to evaluate further withdrawals.

Italian newspapers give prominence to the decision handed down by the European Court of Justice that Italy has breached EU rules on the management of waste, some of it dangerous. Corriere della Sera underlines the sentence does not specifically concern the ongoing refuse crisis in Italy's southern Campania region. To avoid a hefty fine, the Italian authorities must immediately take steps to ensure landfills built between 2001 and 2003 meet the 1999 EU directive's calling for more stringent requirements for waste management.

Teheran's pro-government daily Abrar quotes Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying his country's objective is to destroy "corrupt western powers". Speaking in the holy Shia city of Mashhad at an event where he met President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, Ahmadinejad also "advised" western powers to repent or, "otherwise Iranians will hoist their flag on the roof of their buildings". He claimed Iran's enemies do not fear the technological, economical and industrial aspects of our nuclear programme, but tremble at the thought of the Islamic republic sitting as equals with them at the same table.

New York Post leads with the news that a photo of a nude Carla Bruni, wife of President Sarkozy of France, smashed its auction estimate as it sold for more than €56,000 in New York. The image was taken by photographer Michel Comte 15 years ago and shows Ms Bruni facing the camera with her hands crossed at her waist. A buyer for a Chinese art collector bought the black-and-white 1993 photo for 22 times its estimated value.

Gazeta Polska says a teenage Polish fireman, accused of going on an arson spree to notch up enough overtime to buy his girlfriend a present, is facing 10 years in jail. Pawol Leszek, 18, allegedly set fire to four barns and then went to the local fire station where he earned £2 an hour as a voluntary fire fighter.